World No. 1 Jordan Spieth put an exclamation point on a superlative campaign when the PGA Tour on Friday named him the Player of the Year for a 2014-2015 season in which two major championships were among his five wins.
Jordan Spieth named PGA Tour Player of the Year
Jordan Spieth caps a sensational 2014-2015 season in which he won two majors and five overall events by earning PGA Tour Player of the Year honors.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
When the 22-year-old Texan earlier this week captured The PGA of America’s PoY honors and the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average, he became the second-youngest player to earn both citations. Tiger Woods was 21 when he did so in 1997.
Spieth was grateful for the honor that could not have come as a surprise.
“It’s a season to remember,” he said on Friday. “It’s an honor to win Player of the Year because it is MVP of our league and it’s voted on by the players and for them to recognize the hard work we’ve put in and what we’ve been able to do with it is truly special.”
Many, including PGA PoY runner-up Jason Day and third-ranked Rory McIlroy, unofficially awarded the honor to the six-time tour winner even before he capped his sensational Season of Spieth with a victory at the Tour Championship. That W also nailed down the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus.
Someone besides Spieth winning Player of the Year? pic.twitter.com/8NauJp3duy
— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) September 27, 2015 The tour does not announce tallies of votes cast by players, but it’s safe to speculate that Spieth cruised to victory at the ballot box much as he did on the course. In addition to making 21 of 25 cuts, Spieth:
- Won his first major, the Masters with a record-matching score, and followed that up with a U.S. Open triumph
- Missed scoring the first calendar grand slam of the four professional majors when he finished one shot out of a playoff at the British Open and came in second to Day at the PGA Championship. The close calls set a new single-season cumulative scoring record for all four majors, edging Tiger Woods.
- Reclaimed the No.1 world ranking from Day when he prevailed at the season finale
- Led the tour with 15 top-10s, including four runner-up finishes
- Earned two other wins at the Valspar Championship and John Deere Classic
- Set the single-season mark for official prize money winnings by earning more than $12 million (the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus is not included in official earnings)
Five-time winner and No. 2 in the golf rankings, Day was in the running for the points-based PGA accolades, thanks to his first major title and three other victories in his last seven events. The 27-year-old Australian came on strong at the end of the season as Spieth swooned to back-to-back missed cuts at the The Barclays and Deutsche Bank Championship.
Spieth, however, rebounded and took the season-ending tourney by four strokes as Day finished T10. The ending the fashionable late-season debate that Day had actually made this award a toss-up.
Tour players also voted Daniel Berger Rookie of the Year. The 22-year-old recorded six top-10 finishes and was the only first-year player to qualify for the Tour Championship.
* * *
SB Nation presents: Giving US Open champion Webb Simpson a golf lesson
See More:
